The founders of a highly touted charter school in Houston have been accused of embezzling $2.6 million from public funds.
“Five years ago, congratulatory letters poured in from politicians after the Varnett charter school in Houston won a federal “blue ribbon” award for its academic record. It was a standout among schools serving mostly poor, minority children.
“Marian Annette Cluff was the school’s founding and longtime superintendent. Her husband, Alsie Cluff Jr., was the facilities and operations manager.
“The once-heralded couple now faces potential prison sentences and fines after a 19-count indictment, announced Thursday by federal prosecutors, accused them of operating secret bank accounts and pocketing more than $1 million from parents for field trips and school fundraisers. The Cluffs are accused of embezzling more than $2.6 million intended to benefit the impoverished students they enrolled.
“The couple and their son and daughter earned more than $626,000 combined from Varnett in the 2013-2014 school year, according to state records, and the Cluffs own a south Houston home appraised at $1.7 million.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m waiting for a comparable news story about white collar crime by a public school administrator or teacher. Yes it happens, but on this scale?
They do it via professional development in very fun locales and skip the PD part
Not saying that it could never happen, but for the most part there are too many checks and balances in public schools. Public schools are accountable to the taxpayers. Private schools, even though they receive public money, have very little public oversight. They are set up to benefit scammers.
Is anyone surprised?
Not surprised, but still shocked…
Not surprised, not shocked. Business as usual.
In light of this news…one would hope that Texas would pursue some new laws regarding charters and accountability. But this is Texas so I won’t hold out hope. The children of this charter ought to testify at their sentencing. That would be real justice!
Believe me, this is not the only charter school doing illegal things with our tax dollars. It’s good that finally charters are being scrutinized like public schools.
In the frenzied effort to steal these school tax dollars, terrible lies have been spread about teachers, for the purpose of destroying the public’s trust in public schools. One of the worst of these heinous lies is that “the unions” (i.e. teachers) have protected child molesters in the classroom! (Does anyone truly believe that?)
Today, in Eduwonk’s blog, the author praises a superintendent who just died because he knew how to get child molester’s out of the classroom!!!
Well, we know from Penn State and Miramonte, it’s often the administrators who turn a blind eye towards criminal behavior in the schools, placing the reputations of their schools and leaders above the safety of the students. In the case of Miramonte, the perpetrator was transferred from school to school and allowed to “teach,” despite numerous complaints by teachers, parents and students. Finally, a clerk in a photo shop called police and then the man was quickly arrested and taken out of the classroom No involvement of “downtown” or “the unions” was required to get the man off campus. Someone just cared enough to report him.
This “reform” movement has been filled with fraud and lies. That’s because the true purpose was siphoning public tax money into private pockets and not the improvement of education. Hopefully, that’s becoming more and more clear to the public as these scams become more frequent and better publicized. I hope there comes a time when the “reformers” are made to feel the shame that they justly deserve as there are few things worse than defaming schoolteachers and stealing money from poor kids.
I know how to get child milestones out of the classroom too: dial 911.
But isn’t this what entrepreneurship is all about? You set yourself up to make a lot of money (it’s just that with tax money they could do it faster…). Were there any limits on what they could pay the administrators? Were they required to pay the teachers a particular amount?
I’m worried that it might all be ruled “legal,” just because the laws do not require much of charter schools — not even good education.
Marcia Weinhold
“Charter Fraud”
Tip of the iceberg, couple mill
Much more under water still
When Titanic takes a hit
Public will go down with it
“The once-heralded couple now faces potential prison sentences and fines after a 19-count indictment, announced Thursday by federal prosecutors, accused them of operating secret bank accounts and pocketing more than $1 million from parents for field trips and school fundraisers. The Cluffs are accused of embezzling more than $2.6 million intended to benefit the impoverished students they enrolled.”
Why is it federal? Did the state oversight process fail? If the only oversight provided is federal, a lot of money is going to go missing.
Might want to rethink this governance system the ed reform “movement” invented. There was probably a reason school finances were overseen locally, don’t you think?
“while putting their relatives on the payroll and starting companies to run buses for and rent facilities to the school. Varnett’s 2011 audit said the school paid the two companies $2 million in one year.”
Why is that still legal? The contracted services swindle has been going on for years. Are regulators afraid to put ordinary conflicts and ethics rules in, or what?
It’s not a high bar. It just means they can’t directly profit from the contracts they sign. It’s a rock-bottom ethics rule.
Your tax dollars hard at work, not.
“The I Can charter schools with close ties to the Cleveland school district will have to re-hire four teachers and give seven teachers back pay for cutting ties with them during unionization efforts in 2013-14, according to a settlement through the National Labor Relations Board.
And school officials will have to post – and read aloud to employees – a statement saying they cannot interfere with union organization efforts.”
“Among accusations against I Can were that employees were led to believe they were under surveillance, employees were pressured to reveal who was leading organizing efforts, and that pay and benefit improvements were made just before the scheduled vote to discourage union membership.”
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/i_can_charter_schools_slapped.html
If teachers in Atlanta got charged with racketeering for cheating to get merit pay bonuses paid by public funds, then these founders should be in for a serious charge for stealing public money. It would not be surprising if they are well connected and get less than those teachers got.
Wonder if stealing public money gets you more or less time in prison than the bs racketeering charge the Atlanta teachers got. Both of these cases dealt w public money however the teachers never received the money in the first place.
The rhetoric of accountability only applies to public schools. Did you notice that this was a federal investigation? They stole money from Texans. They surely stole money from Texas. However, it takes a federal investigation to bring these cockroaches out into the light. The political class, their surrogates (educrats and union leaders), and their corporate sponsors only use “accountability” against their enemies.
Think about it. They got caught. How many more charters are out there doing this? We know this is not an isolated case. I work as a public school teacher in Camden, NJ where charters are opening as we speak. Why? No one cared about us before. I’m not saying all charter schools are run by unscrupulous people. But for most of them, if you just scratch beneath the surface a bit, avarice is what you will find.
The amount of charter school debt was $1.6 bil. in 2014. The major holder of the debt earned an 18% return (WSJ-Aaron Kuriloff-Dec. 28, 2015), which means almost 1/5 of the education money went to capital markets.
In Texas, a decision was made to back charter school debt with the Permanent School Fund. If there is a default, the state of Texas must find the resources to cover the liability.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.